fʌŋk noun (Music) (Youth Culture) In
recent use in
popular music, a
style that draws
upon Black cultural roots
and includes bluesy or
soulful elements,
especially syncopated rhythms and chord progressions including sevenths and ninths;
often as
the second
word in combinations (see below).
Etymology: In US
English the word funk originally
meant 'a
bad smell' but a
new sense was back-formed
from the
slang adjective funky in the fifties to
refer to the
fashion then for down-to-earth bluesy music; funky
also meant 'swinging' or 'fashionable'. (There is no
connection with the
British English word funk
meaning 'a
state of fear'.) In the latest
development of
its meaning, Funk
has been extended
outside the styles traditionally thought of as funky, tending to
become a catch-all tag for
whatever is
fashionable in a
particular area of popular music.
History and
Usage: As mentioned
above, funk has existed
since the fifties, but has acquired a broader meaning recently. The
first crossovers
between funk and
other styles
came in the seventies with
disco-funk, a funky (that
is, fast and rootsy) style of
disco music.
This was followed in the eighties by electrofunk (see electro),
jazz-funk (which, it has
more than once been claimed, is
neither jazz nor funk),
p-funk (a style developed by
George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic), slack-funk, slow-funk, and techno-funk (see techno), to
name only a
few of the styles
which claimed to
include funk elements. A leading and
influential practitioner of funk
proper is James
Brown. Often the funk tag signifies no more than an
attempt to
incorporate Black
musical traditions and
jagged rhythms, funky chord progressions, or soulful lyrics
into the
White music style: funk has been
widely played by White musicians since the mid seventies. Derivatives formed on funk
have also been
common in the eighties: funker and funkster extended
their meaning to
cover the broader sense of funk, and
there were other, one-off formations
along the lines of funkadelic (originally a proper name but also adopted as a common noun or adjective), funkateer, funkathon, and funketize. We scored No 1 disco albums with
legendary jazz-funk
duo Morrissey Mullen. Music
Week 2 Feb. 1985,
Advertisement pullout, p. i If
old bubblegum music is on I
sing at the top of my lungs, and if new funkadelic is on I bop in my
seat. New
York Times 14
May 1986,
section C, p. 1 If you've
never fancied this kind of
frantic funk
try this for size. Blackman's
wild and
witty lyrical style combines
macho street level cliche with
sharp social awareness.
Hi-Fi Answers Dec. 1986, p. 78
These 10 songs
demonstrate that
all it takes is a
good kick in the
pants, a
bottleneck slide guitar, and a
feel for
Muscle Shoals slow-funk to
make a
boy want to
whoop and
holler all
night long.
Dirty Linen Spring 1989, p. 56 The second track on the
album, 'Have a
Talk with God' is a
simple message to
people with problems...backed with a slack-funk
beat. Shades No. 1 1990, p. 19